Social Centres / Free Spaces

from freeschool, 8 June 2009: "Special theme on housing, squatting and gentrification - A weekend of workshops, discussions and skillsharing to promote free, community organised learning... So, if there's something you always wanted to learn, a skill you are willing to share or a topic for discussion you think is important we would love to hear from you.." more

from various sources, updated 15 June 2009: "Come to Berlin for the action days to fight for free spaces. We're all staying. Against gentrification, for freedom. This year there will be the 'We all stay! Action Weeks' again. Since the decentralized DIY concept of protest was so successfull last year we will continue to rely on it this year PLUS latest info on defending the Berlin Rigaer94 squat..." more

from various sources, updated 29 May 2009: "On May 16th 2009, over 1000 people gathered to participate in the occupation movement festival in Lund, Sweden. During Saturday two buildings were occupied, and during the Sunday night so were two unused buildings on the St Lars.

In addition to the imaginative tactics the activists used to outwit the cops, different blocks were subject to random and ordered police violence. Making a comeback to street politics was the re-appearance of padded and white-suited protesters..." more

from email, 25 May 2009: "On 1 June 2009 the anarchist/alternative infoshop-library „A-raamatukogu“ (the A-library) will open its doors in Tartu Kultuuritehas (Culture Factory of Tartu, Pikk street 58/60) in Estonia. Estonia is a small (ex-Soviet) country in north-east Europe, near Finland, Russia and Latvia. The A-raamatukogu is situated near the downtown area of Tartu, the second biggest city in Estonia which is known as the „University city“ of the region. more

from email, updated 11 May 2009: "LONDON: This May we got three events in our small but perfectly formed Social Centre space:
- the film 'Chop Shop' (Sunday 17 May) directed by Ramin Bahrani;
- a night of dystopian sci-fi films - 'Idaho Transfer' and 'Soylent Green' - to get you scared for the future (Tuesday 19 May);
- plus a night of readings and chat from two US zine writers and zine librarians Alex Wrekk and Robb Roemershauser (Wednesday 20 May)..." more

from email, 9 May 2009: "We are trying to invite the entire population of Lund to join us in taking back the city from the politicians that let houses stand empty and degrade while people don’t even have a roof over their heads, and the few owning property keep building luxury houses at expensive prices..." more

from ramparts, 15 April 2009: "On the Thursday following the G20 protests (2 April 2009), two squatted social centres in East London were raided by riot police, apparently looking for instigators of the attacks on the Royal Bank of Scotland.

RampART Social Centre, which has existed for more than four years, and a newly opened Convergence Centre in Earl Street were both being used to house and feed protesters throughout the period of the G20 summit. In both cases, the police acted illegally but, other than a brief report in the Independent which referred to unwarranted violence, the raids remained largely unreported.  more

from email, 15 April 2009: "Rozbrat Collective needs support from any groups, movements and people who feel Rozbrat Squat is close to them. We already announce that on the day of the auction there will be a demonstration and we invite you all to come... ROZBRAT STAYS - LET'S RECLAIM THE CITY", on 9 May 2009 there will be a demonstration in defence of Rozbrat taking place. We invite all of you to take part in it..." more